Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no evidence to Libyan funding accusations

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy says there is no evidence to support allegations he received campaign funding from late Libyan Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"I am accused without any physical evidence," Sarkozy told magistrates as he was placed under investigation, Le Figaro newspaper reports.

He is being investigated for illicit election campaign financing in 2007, misappropriation of Libyan public funds and passive corruption.

Sarkozy, 63, has denied wrongdoing.

The former French leader was summoned for questioning Tuesday, which he voluntarily attended, according to an official at the court.

The centre-right politician, who was released on Wednesday following two days of questioning, says his Libyan accusers are seeking vengeance for his decision to deploy French warplanes during the uprising which overthrew Gaddafi in 2011.

Sarkozy, leader of France from 2007 until 2012, has been dogged by accusations of financial wrongdoing.

In 2013, France opened an investigation into allegations that Sarkozy's campaign had benefited from millions of euros of illicit funds from Gaddafi.

He failed in his bid to return to power in 2012, however, losing to socialist François Hollande.

Sarkozy was detained in 2014 in a separate investigation into alleged campaign funding abuses - the first time this has happened to a French ex-president.

One of Sarkozy's former ministers and a close ally, Brice Hortefeux, was also reportedly questioned by police on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Le Figaro published what it said was the full court statement made by Sarkozy to French investigators (in French).

In it, he says that he is aware the allegations against him are "serious", but that they amount to "slander" and have had made his life "hell" since 11 March 2011, when the claims were first made by Gaddafi.

"I have never sought to evade my obligations in my dealings with my friends, colleagues and all the people mentioned in these proceedings," Sarkozy said, adding: "I have never sought to influence their statements or judgments."

Criminal proceedings have been launched against Sarkozy in one other case of alleged illicit campaign financing.

It is alleged that he engaged in accounting fraud to overshoot the ceiling for campaign expenditure in 2012, which was €22.5m.